Spring is coming!

Spring is rolling into Harbin, though it's taking it sweet time. On Monday we had some really heavy wet snow and today it was warm enough that I had to leave my coat unzipped as I went to Chinese class this morning. I thought I was in China? It seems like the weather is just the same now as it is back home. It's kind of nice, though, that little bit of 'normal'.

I'm glad winter is on the way out. I've never experienced such cold temperatures for such a long period of time in my life. I'm not cut out for dealing with such extremely cold weather. I will not be sticking around for another year to confirm my theory. My plan as of right now is to return home in December. I'm looking forward to seeing all my family and friends before I jet off again on another adventure to another country on my must visit list. 

My Chinese classes are getting progressively more difficult. My biggest hand up is that I can't really read the Chinese hanzi. The characters don't make a lot of sense in my mind and I've found it very difficult to memorize them all. It doesn't help that some of the characters are only different by a single line. It's difficult to distinguish between characters sometimes. I'm planning on taking a little break after I finish the book I'm on to take some time to study the hanzi on my own. If I don't I'll fall behind and I'd rather take a break to work on my own than pay for a class I'm not ready to take. That sounds like the responsible path to take, right?

Teaching has gotten, at the same time, easier and harder. It's easier in that I know what I'm doing a little more. I've got a few months experience under my belt now so I have games and ideas sitting ready to be used at a moments notice. What's getting harder is now that some of the students are more settled with me, they have decided to try and push to find out how far I'll let them go. Some of them are discovering quickly that it's not far. It's really hard to teach over kids who are shouting across the room, sometimes in Chinese (although, I am finding out that I am able to understand them a little bit. Go me!)

Well, I guess that's all for now! See you soon!

Back on Track

Sorry it's been so long since I've been here. I had a long vacation about a week ago and I lost all of my momentum. I think I've managed to snag it again.

Harbin winter has decided it no longer wants to freeze me to death. The temperatures are starting to rise - slowly. Within the next few weeks, we may even rise above freezing! I think I might do a happy dance when that happens. I really, really, really don't like the cold.

Over my nearly three week vacation there were times when I was really busy and there were days when I never left my apartment. I can't say which days I enjoyed more. They were both really great in their own ways. One of the neatest things that I did was go to Sun Island for the Ice and Snow Festival. Sun Island is one of several locations of the whole thing. It is dedicated to snow sculptures only. They were pretty impressive.

The snow dino is hungry.

This piece is hollow. I can't imagine how much time and effort it took to create.

These are just a few of the pieces at Sun Island and they aren't even the biggest ones. There was one that was at least as long as a football field, if not longer.

I had a chance to explore Harbin and managed to check a few boxes, but there is still so much to see! Until next time.